He has not yet been awarded one subsidy or professor inorganic materials science Dave Blank reels in the next prize: little under two-million euro in a few weeksÆ time. Not a bad score.
'Everything is coming together in a number of areasÆ, Blank says. 'I only started here in an enthusiastic group in November, and there are so many challenges and ideas to work on'.
A few weeks ago Blank received a VICI-subsidy from the Dutch Science Organisation NWO for his 'innovative research line' into artificially created materials, applicable in devices at nanoscale. Shortly afterwards followed by a European THIOX-subsidy (for research into thin oxide films) of 600,000 euros. This money allows Blank to show off his experimental finds through workshops, contacts with businesses, and developing information material.
Blank can make his complex materials thanks to a technique that he developed together with dr.ing. Guus Rijnders. 'From the beginning we have been very successful together. It is now certain that he will reinforce my group for the VICI-research. I am very happy with thatÆ, according to Blank.
Using pulsed-laser deposition Blank and his group can shoot at pieces of complex, natural materials and, as it were, vaporise them. In an oxygen-rich room they are then deposited on a substrate. By shooting at the next material different complex materials are stackable, which produces a completely new artificial material. With a clever diffraction measuring method that sends electrons whizzing along the substrate one can measure whether a new layer is completely grown.
Blank: 'This means we can strictly control the growth of layers of a few atoms thick, in the order of half a nanometre. The fascinating question is whether in this way you can make new materials dozens of layers thick with a surprising combination of properties, or maybe with as yet unknown properties. All this at nanoscale.'
The researchers have a great deal of manipulation possibilities at their disposal. Except for the stacking sequence of the cube-like crystals that compose the complex materials û 'not for nothing do we call it playing with nanoscale Lego' û it is possible to vary the oxygen content in the room. The crystals can also be turned slightly or unbalanced by adding a strange element to the structure.
BlankÆs ambitions for the NWO-subsidy in the coming five years are high. Three extra PhD-students should start working on extending the understanding of the growth method, manipulate process conditions, construct new materials and establish the first principles of the new devices that can be made with these new materials.
Blank: 'Multi-disciplinary research, therefore, typical for MESA+ and the new faculty of Science and Technology, which now includes Inorganic Materials Science. Now that the decision has been made that Chemical Engineering and Applied Physics are part of one faculty, I feel that we should look for the advantages this brings.'
